Mark Fry’s got the easiest job of selling the club ... (From Daily Echo)
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Mark Fry’s got the easiest job of selling the club ... I f he’s having trouble, what hope did the rest of us have?
3:35pm Thursday 7th May 2009 in Sport
HARD SELL: Mark Fry
MICHAEL Wilde has branded as “nonsense” the claims that Saints would have been bought ages ago but for the major shareholders.
The fact the club’s parent company Southampton Leisure Holdings was a PLC is believed to have put previous investors off bidding.
The Echo has also been told that the three major shareholders and their personalities – Wilde, Rupert Lowe and Leon Crouch – were the reasons the club has remained up for sale for the last few years.
“PLCs are bought and sold all the time,” one source admitted.
Tough But Wilde points to administrator Mark Fry’s experience as proof of how tough it has been to sell the club in the recent financial climate.
The former football board chairman has even asked “what chance did we have?” of finding a buyer when Fry’s month of negotiations has so far failed to result in even one concrete bid.
Wilde, blamed by the boards he pieced together for failing to bring in new investment, told the Echo: “We have all been trying to get money into the club for so long.
“I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve spoken to to try and get money in.
“Mark Fry had 32 expressions of interest and so quickly that went down to three or four still interested.
“Who’s got the easiest job of selling the club? Mark Fry, and still he’s having trouble selling it.
“It makes you realise that all the people that have been at the club in the last three or four years, what chance have we have had?”
Wilde told the Echo yesterday that the club’s demise into administration is a direct result of relegation from the cash cow which is the Premiership.
“It isn’t about individuals, it’s about loss of revenue and how to deal with that,” he said.
Struggling He added: “Without a penny for the shareholding it has proven so difficult to get a buyer for the club.
“So how difficult was it with the shareholding?
“It being a listed company added to it all.
“You can’t get cheaper than buying it out of administration and still he (Fry) is struggling to get a buyer.
“That proves what the previous boards have all been up against.
“You can’t just say it’s for sale and expect a sale.
“Rupert’s had a lot of meetings, I’ve had a lot of meetings and I’m sure Leon has with potential investors.
“But they are only potential.”
The thought that you could just find somebody to buy the club if it wasn’t for the shareholders is nonsense.
“Even though we all have differences of opinion, when people have been interested we’ve all spoken to them.”
Comments(2)
Costa Baz
says...
4:57pm Mon 11 May 09
pugwash wrote:I take your point pugwash, but it is always easier to stay solvent when your income is healthy, than when it isn't.
I WOULD ARGUE THAT DROPPING OUT OF THE PREMIERSHIP WAS NOT THE REASON FOR GOING INTO ADMINISTRATION.RUPER T HAD INCOME/SPENDING UNDER CONTROL WHEN HE RESIGNED IN 2006,(i.e.CASH IN THE BANK OF £4.5 M.)ADMINISTRATION WAS THE RESULT OF 2 YEARS OF THE WILDE/CROUCH REGIME WHICH THEN RESULTED IN THAT BECOMING A £5.5 M. OVERDRAFT...AND WHAT WAS IT THAT FINALLY CRIPPLED THE CLUB..YES YOU GUESSED IT,THE OVERDRAFT.BOTH WERE WAY OUT OF THEIR DEPTH.
Our income dropped dramatically when we dropped out of the Prem (Sky money) despite still getting parachute payments.
I agree that the Wilde/Crouch era did overspend, but feel that Lowe SHOULD have speculated to accumulate in our first season in the CCC.
Instead of crowing about clauses in players contracts halving wages, he should have moved heaven and earth to ensure we kept together a nucleus of a squad to get back into the Prem at the first time of trying, like Birmingham this season.
The Wilde & Crouch era DID overspend, but they did it in order to get back to the Prem, and but for a stupid penalty (conceded by Pele) in the first play off at SMS, and an own goal by McGoldrick at Pride Park, we wouldn't have needed the penalty shoot out that we lost.
We would have made the play off final and MAYBE, just maybe, their outlay would have been recouped 10 times over.
Bad decisions throughout Lowe's reign, that eventually led to our first relegation, were major contributions to our current plight.
pugwash says...
11:18pm Fri 8 May 09
T HAD INCOME/SPENDING UNDER CONTROL WHEN HE RESIGNED IN 2006,(i.e.CASH IN THE BANK OF £4.5 M.)ADMINISTRATION WAS THE RESULT OF 2 YEARS OF THE WILDE/CROUCH REGIME WHICH THEN RESULTED IN THAT BECOMING A £5.5 M. OVERDRAFT...AND WHAT WAS IT THAT FINALLY CRIPPLED THE CLUB..YES YOU GUESSED IT,THE OVERDRAFT.BOTH WERE WAY OUT OF THEIR DEPTH.